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[bjones7]

Hello,

After looking at pages 1-9 in the DNS-323 forum, I'm still pretty clueless about my issue with 2- HATTACHI 1TB disk using a DNS-323.

The issue/what happened: Purchased the two 1-TB HardDrives a 4-5 months ago. They were working fine in our DNS-323 in RAID 1. No sign of disk failing or anything. Last week I bumped the DNS-323 and it landed on it's side (it was already at ground level). I started hearing this click click click sound. I was like "Oh great the header is off one of the disk" , or so I think. Well I don't have time to open it up in a static free area to check, so on so on, so right now looking into the clicking noise isn't an option.

So what do I do ? I take out the disk that was clicking (disk 1), and put disk 2 into disk 1 slot. Rebooted the NAS, tried to access the interface via IE. Nothing! the connection errored out. Now I didn't reset the configuration settings. In fact I CAN ping the DNS-323, yet couldn't access the interface. So I took disk 2 out, reboot, accessed the interface and boom goes the dynamite got to the DNS-323 interface. Yet why wouldn't the NAS work with just disk 2 in ? Is there a way to put the DNS-323 in standard mode and not RAID 1, so just disk 2 can be read?

Of course, I next booted my personal computer up in Ubuntu (dual boot with Windows). Took disk 2, used a external sata connection. The disk mounted, I could see the disk, but guess what NO visible directories or files!(except .backup) Well, went back to my Windows O/S and googled searched EXT recovery. DriveInternals(which i've heard of), has RAID recovery software. Download the trial, waited 9 hours for the scan to complete. Looks like I found my all my files. Great right? NOPE, not only is the price very high, it doesn't show the files with the original names! So honestly, a ext recovery is going to be my last resort.

I guess, my question is, how can I use disk 2(only) that was in raid 1 (with disk 1), to recover my files? Why can't I just pop in disk 2 into the DNS-323 and see why files? I apologize if any of this doesn't make sense. I'm just very confuse on how a bump caused all these issues, especially when the disks were in RAID 1 ?

Thanks!

[fordem]

Have you considered that the "bump" may have damaged BOTH disks?

Under normal circumstances, if disk1 fails, the data will be available from disk2 (and vice versa) without your having to swap disks around, in fact without your having to anything differently.

[bjones7]

fordem,

I think your right . Do you or does anyone else know a free linux based recovery tool, to recover my data from my ext3 partition ?
Thanks!

[pixelpunk]

Wow, unfortunately I am having a very similar issue.

I have been running two Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB drives for awhile now until last week one of the drives failed for the first time. I noticed it when I tried to access a mapped drive on the 323 and it was 'unavailable'. When I went to restart it I saw the leftmost led blinking yellow. I couldn't access the config page so I held the square button until it shut off. On restart I still couldn't access the device through the mapping so I logged into the web interface and was immediately prompted with a message asking me to format the drives.

Of course I freaked out because 1) the remaining drive was unaccessible, and 2) the device was prompting me to format BOTH drives. At least that's how I read it because the word 'drives' was pluralized.

No worries though, right? That's what I bought this device for. So I removed the bad drive from the bay with the blinking yellow light and put it in my tower. I then ran Seagate's disk tools and to no surprise it failed. A few days later Seagate had sent me a replacement drive so I popped it in the 323 and was prompted to format the 'diskS' again. Assuming this was some sort of translation error on D-Links part I still did not want to chance it so I ordered a third Seagate 1.5TB from NewEgg. My idea was this: install the refurbished drive and the new drive in the 323. Run recovery software on the original 'good' 323 drive and just recover the contents to the NAS.

So here a few days later and all of the software I have tried doesn't seem to know wtf the file names are. I have spent at least $300 on drives and another $300 on a device isn't doing what I originally bought it to do and I'm furious. Looking through the forums the only good advice I have read is that the 'RAID 1' isn't a guaranteed backup and I should have bought this third drive long ago and done NIGHTLY syncs. LOL

If I knew then what I know now I would have just used two external usb enclosures. One for primary storage and the second for nightly syncs.

What a POS. I guess the joke's on us!

[ChosenGSR]

Wow, that's scary.  Has anyone had a successful RAID1 recovery when a drive failed?  Is this just a freak situation?

[fordem]

Wow, that's scary.  Has anyone had a successful RAID1 recovery when a drive failed?  Is this just a freak situation?

This is a little more that a drive failure - the unit fell - and if accepted IT procedures had been followed, the original poster would have had his/her data backed up elsewhere - the same goes for pixelpunk.

However - to answer your question - yes, I have had a drive fail on my DNS-323 and had the rebuild go flawlessly.

[pixelpunk]

I have installed my (3rd) newly purchased 1.5TB drive into the 323 and installed FunPlug. Because RAID1 isn't a reliable backup I'm going to pursue my idea of syncing the two drives using only the DLink 323 hardware. Doing so will confine traffic to the device itself and off my other computers and network.

If you're not already familiar with FunPlug it essentially makes your device a working Linux box. Using Rsync I can create a 'job' that clones the primary disk on the schedule that I choose whether it's nightly, weekly, etc). It's super easy to install and works along-side the D-Link firmware.

http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:backup

I'm amazed D-Link hasn't already implemented native functionality such as this. Granted it's not a LIVE backup when compared to RAID1 it is much more reliable.

Best of luck to you all.

[fordem]

I'm amazed D-Link hasn't already implemented native functionality such as this. Granted it's not a LIVE backup when compared to RAID1 it is much more reliable.

Best of luck to you all.

The mistake you're making is considering RAID1 a backup - it's not, it was never intended to be, and no backup can provide what RAID1 does, which is availability of the data.

Why does your bank use RAID?  Why do credit card processors use RAID?  Why do airline reservation systems (Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, SITA) use RAID? Why does NASA uses RAID?

Here's a hint - it's not because they need a backup of their data (they all use RAID and they all backup) - it's because downtime costs money, and RAID is the first step toward a high availability system.

[pixelpunk]

I am not here to *****. I simply want people to know that I dropped over $500 on the DNS-323 so that I could keep my digital life accessible from a single point of entry with along with some sort of redundancy. Once setup, everything seemed fine for a couple of years until I had my first drive crash and what happened? The device didn't work. I'm not here to cry about it and I'm not here to ask for help. I came only to share my experience and dissatisfaction with the forum.

PS:

"no backup can provide what RAID1 does, which is availability of the data."

I see what you did there.

[ChosenGSR]

No disrespect fordem but the device should function as advertised.  No one is arguing with you regarding backing up of a RAID device itself.  However if one drive fails, the remaining drive should be accessible.  The fact that the device has mirroring and "high availability" should allow anyone to "backup" their data and rebuild the array when one drive fails.

[fordem]

No disrespect fordem but the device should function as advertised.  No one is arguing with you regarding backing up of a RAID device itself.  However if one drive fails, the remaining drive should be accessible.  The fact that the device has mirroring and "high availability" should allow anyone to "backup" their data and rebuild the array when one drive fails.

First - no manufacturer, not even on the most expensive storage array available, will guarantee the availability of your data in the event of a disk failure, and the industry policy is that you are responsible for the integrity of your data - it doesn't matter what brand you buy, it doesn't matter what you pay for it, from top to bottom, Apple to Zenith, that's the way the industry works.

Having said that - as far as RAID1 goes, this device DOES function as advertised - if you have experienced something different, I'd be happy to hear about it.

I've used RAID and disk mirroring personally & professionally for almost two decades, and that includes RAID1 on a DNS-323 for four years - I did extensive disk failure simulations during the first few months of ownership (this was my first NAS appliance), before putting it into service, and have had one failure since then - my data has remained available from the remaining drive in every case, and the rebuilds have also been succesful.

The big issue that most first time RAID users seem to have is an incorrect understanding of what RAID is meant to do and then when it does not live up to their incorrect expectation, they whine & gripe.

[Joke]

I'm late to the discussion, but want to let you know that the DNS-320 has built in functions to copy from disk A to B/B to A on a schedule. It's called "Local backup".
I'm however disappointed that it's not possible to copy to an attached USB drive. 

I have installed my (3rd) newly purchased 1.5TB drive into the 323 and installed FunPlug. Because RAID1 isn't a reliable backup I'm going to pursue my idea of syncing the two drives using only the DLink 323 hardware. Doing so will confine traffic to the device itself and off my other computers and network.

If you're not already familiar with FunPlug it essentially makes your device a working Linux box. Using Rsync I can create a 'job' that clones the primary disk on the schedule that I choose whether it's nightly, weekly, etc). It's super easy to install and works along-side the D-Link firmware.

http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:backup

I'm amazed D-Link hasn't already implemented native functionality such as this. Granted it's not a LIVE backup when compared to RAID1 it is much more reliable.

Best of luck to you all.